Posts Tagged ‘access to care’

It would be hard to find a sharper contrast than the one displayed yesterday in the report of fourth quarter 2025 business results for Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Lilly is enjoying the best of times. Novo is suffering the worst. “Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 growth is only getting started,” says CNBC, “as Novo Nordisk braces […]

Right now, we are witnessing a great withdrawal from healthcare, especially for people living with obesity. Many people are losing health insurance coverage altogether because it has become unaffordable. Many others are finding that their insurance will no longer pay for the care they need – if they want the care, they must have the […]

Good luck if you want to make sense of headlines about health insurance and coverage trends for GLP-1 medicines. Peruse the headlines and you can find just about any narrative you want. “Rising health premiums push more small business to drop coverage,” according to Inc. “Employers are opting out of covering GLP-1s,” claims Hines, a […]

A steady stream of headlines makes it obvious. The incomprehensibility of a chronic disease like obesity is overwhelming. The New York Times tells us it’s a hard truth about obesity medicines: “You’ll probably need them forever.” The wellness industry is peddling dubious strategies for an “off-ramp” from GLP-1 therapies with inflated claims about “sustained remission.” […]

U.S. spending on healthcare hit a new record in 2024 – $5.3 trillion. That is a seven percent jump from the prior year, maintaining a longstanding pattern of health spends rising faster than spending on everything else in this economy. But how can it be that, despite all this spending, the burden of chronic diseases […]

A big change is afoot and the hype is cranking up. With the launch of Wegovy tablets by Novo Nordisk yesterday, we are seeing some very big expectations expressed for a new era in obesity care. The stock market has boosted the value of Novo stock by 15 percent since FDA approved these tablets. Yesterday […]

This has been quite a year that we are closing out on this New Year’s Eve. As we start another new year, we will be leaving behind an ample collection of curses we suffered and blessings we enjoyed in 2025. No doubt, you have your list. So here is our own brief list of the […]

This year is quickly winding down and with it, some unpleasant memories may, thankfully, fade. But for our interest in obesity and health, 2025 has been a very eventful year of progress, with five milestones that are particular standouts. So let’s pause and celebrate this progress. 1. Global Embrace of Obesity Care Perhaps the biggest […]

On this Christmas Day, we have a simple wish. It is the wish that equitable access to obesity care, free from stigma and blame, should be available to all. Right now, that is clearly not true. And there’s a lot to suggest that the trends are headed in precisely the wrong direction. Skimming the Cream […]

This has been quite a year. Many remarkable changes we’ve witnessed go well beyond the scope of this commentary. In the policy realm, some of them are close at hand. CDC, which has long guided health policy on obesity, nutrition, and physical activity, has been decimated. NIH is under extraordinary stress. But on the positive […]